Hi all,
I'm getting ready to brew my first lager (which will also be my first all grain batch. This is probably a very bad idea...). I was reading John Palmer's book, where in the latest edition he recommends cooling the wort to fermentation temperature prior to pitching the yeast (rather than pitching at 70 and then cooling to optimum fermentation temp). This makes good sense to me. But since I'll be working with White Labs #833, this means going all the way down to 48-55 degrees F.
My question is -- how am I supposed to do this?? I've got a two-stage immersion chiller that will get the wort down to 70 pretty quick, but no way it'll get it to 50. Should I stick the immersion-cooled wort in the carboy, put it in the fridge, and let it sit overnight to get down to 50, prior to pitching the yeast? It makes me a little nervous to leave vulnerable wort exposed for so long, but I don't see any real alternative.
-Matt
I'm getting ready to brew my first lager (which will also be my first all grain batch. This is probably a very bad idea...). I was reading John Palmer's book, where in the latest edition he recommends cooling the wort to fermentation temperature prior to pitching the yeast (rather than pitching at 70 and then cooling to optimum fermentation temp). This makes good sense to me. But since I'll be working with White Labs #833, this means going all the way down to 48-55 degrees F.
My question is -- how am I supposed to do this?? I've got a two-stage immersion chiller that will get the wort down to 70 pretty quick, but no way it'll get it to 50. Should I stick the immersion-cooled wort in the carboy, put it in the fridge, and let it sit overnight to get down to 50, prior to pitching the yeast? It makes me a little nervous to leave vulnerable wort exposed for so long, but I don't see any real alternative.
-Matt